A fireplace mantel is a wonderful accent piece for a living room or family room. To gain the full decorative advantage of having a mantel, you should look into adding some fireplace mantel accessories. Decorating your home encompasses a full range of accessories, including the small details such as what you should place on your mantel.

To decide what items you should place on your fireplace mantel, take your own personal tastes into account, as well as what will look nice in the room. There is no right or wrong decision when decorating your home, but some items do look better on a fireplace mantel than others.

Fireplace mantel accessories can be divided into two basic groups: decorative accents and personal treasures. Decorative accents are items that you choose for how they look on your mantel, and what they add to your room. Candlesticks, mantel clocks and vases are all examples of fireplace mantel accessories that are decorative accents.

Personal treasures are another nice way to decorate your mantel. Framed pictures and items that you collect, such as figurines, are examples of decorating with personal treasures. Using items that have personal meaning to you as decorations on a fireplace mantel is a wonderful way to add warmth to your home.

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Another type of fireplace mantel accessories that you may want to consider are seasonal decorating accents. The winter holiday season offers plentiful ideas. Garland, pine cones and other winter accents make it easy to dress up your wintertime mantel. While it makes sense that the mantel gets special attention in the winter, when the fireplace is the center of the home, you should not limit the dressing up to the winter season only.

In the spring, force bulbs into bloom for some vibrant color and add them to your mantel. As the weather warms up, clean your fireplace thoroughly and put some attractive logs or fat candles inside the firebox. In the summer, add seashells or wildflowers to your mantel. As the weather cools in the fall, you should prepare for cooler weather by making sure you have plenty of wood on hand and add some decorative pumpkins, potted mums or ears of dry corn to the mantel.

Regardless of what you choose to accessorize your mantel with, it is important to keep some things in mind. Do not drape anything over the front of the mantel during the time of year that you may have a fire in the fireplace. In the winter, in particular, it is important to keep any pine or other greenery on the top of the fireplace mantel. While draping the greenery across the front of the mantel is very attractive, it greatly increases the risk of fire.

The other important safety concern to remember when decorating your mantle is that you must regularly clean the items on the mantel. Cobwebs and dust build up quickly on and between these items. Cobwebs are particularly flammable. By keeping the mantel clean, you can ensure that your home will stay safe and attractive throughout the year.

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